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Health

"Being healthy means more than simply being physically active. It’s about maintaining a balanced spirit, mind and body. . . At the Y, it’s not about the activity you choose as much as it is about the benefits of living healthier on the inside as well as the outside." Personal Note: I've been a Y member for almost two decades and love swimming a mile almost every morning. A favorite perk is the Y "AWAY" program that allows members to use other Ys when away from home -- we've visited about 20 different Ys through the years, and enjoy the uniqueness of each, while quickly feeling at home because of the familiar spirit of workers and members.

Personal Note: I admire Theresa Brown's Advocacy for Patients, Nurses, and Healthcare, and her admirable, informative and sensitive writing. And, I am proud to be a B.S.N. graduate of the same nursing program she chose, The University of Pittsburgh.

"Physician, best-selling author, and professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a visiting professor at the University of Warwick.He is the author of twelve books, including The Mind's Eye, Musicophilia, Awakenings, and The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat."

Personal Note: I love and admire Oliver Sacks' books, footnotes, wisdom, wit, creativity, curiosity, and humility. I believe I have read every one of his wonderful books, and always look forward to the next one. A highlight of my life was hearing him give a talk in person. Chat may be closer to the correct word, as certainly speech or lecture are not, as his style was nearly intimate, although the content erudite and fascinating. One more reason I am fond of Oliver Sacks is he is a swimmer. I treasure my own morning laps and their benefit for mind and spirit as well as the body, and often smile recalling his comment somewhere that during his swims he composes his books.***************************************************

Personal Note: Thank heavens and modern medicine for the improved prognosis for most who contract the dread illness once called Consumption. This short New Yorker article,"TO THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN!" by Sally McGrane, about a hotel in Switzerland, once a sanatorium, also provides a brief synopsis of Thomas Mann's admirable novel "The Magic Mountain," about TB, death, time, and much more. The article resonates nostalgically for me as it was a gift from my now husband in 1975. I then carried it along during six weeks via Eurail Pass through Western Europe (including Switzerland -- but not to the town mentioned in the article) and eventually finished the whole fascinating but winding story about TB patients, and much more. The battered yellow paperback, underlined and filled with margin notes, is around the house somewhere. After forgetting it about it for a long time, I am tempted to look at again.

Bio Ann Neuser Lederer

Ann Neuser Lederer was born in Ohio and has also lived and worked in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Kentucky as a Registered Nurse. Prior to nursing she studied art and earned degrees in Anthropology. Her poetry and nonfiction appear in online and print journals; anthologies such as Best of the Net,